The Fugitives
by GreatKateZonkeyMachine
Summary: "...Death Eaters were fleeing or else being captured..." The year after Harry and his friends leave Hogwarts, a group of students get dangerously caught up in the mysterious last-ditch scheme of the Death Eaters that got away.


Author's Note: **A Harry Potter fic—hooray! This has been in the works since 2010. Here's what you need to know:**

**1. This is not about Harry and his friends. Original characters in the world we know and love.**

**2. This chapter is a preface—it introduces the main characters and foreshadows the story, but takes place slightly removed from the rest of the story as far as the timeline.**

**3. The characters introduced here are **_**not**_** "my" Harry, Ron and Hermione. They just happen to be a trio of two boys and a girl.**

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Disclaimer: **I don't own any part of the Harry Potter universe.**

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Andrew could remember a time when things were different.

He remembered laughter and fun. He remembered kindness and fairness. He could remember when no one lived in fear, wizard or Muggle. He remembered Professor Dumbledore.

Other years, he thrilled to come back to Hogwarts. Yes, there had been the Chamber of Secrets, and Sirius Black—but the world had been _good_.

No longer. Not here.

Albus Dumbledore's death had marked the beginning of the decay of Hogwarts. First came the raids, when the train had been purged of Muggle-borns. He'd watched as his fellow Hufflepuffs were dragged away, never seen again by anyone afterwards. Then came Snape, that sallow-faced slimeball, sitting in the chair that was Dumbledore's, that should have been McGonagall's.

And then there were the Carrows.

Brother and sister, Death Eaters both, they took over discipline and education, warping the curriculum until much subject matter became its polar opposite. Suddenly Muggles were vermin and the Dark Arts were to be mastered, not defended against; and anyone who disagreed disappeared. _Crucio_ and _Sectumsempra_ became common, uttered by the Carrows and sometimes by students. Through Snape and the vile Carrows, the entire school was in You-Know-Who's grip.

Hogwarts was not a wonderland. It was a concentration camp.

Today was Dark Arts class, with the male Carrow Amycus. The entire class was Hufflepuff, so there was a particular atmosphere of misery. Amycus was lecturing about how to reanimate the dead—how to create an Inferius.

Sitting a few desks away from Andrew was a boy he knew basically but not well. The boy's name was Mason. He bore an expression of contained fury as the Death Eater talked. Mason's hair was shorter than Andrew's, the same dark color as his eyebrows, and pointed out in the front, so that his whole stern face was visible. This boy was often inscrutable, but currently his disgust for the Carrow was quite obvious.

Amycus's lecture was interrupted all of a sudden when the classroom door opened at the back of the room. Amycus's sister, Alecto Carrow, was standing there, escorting a tiny first-year girl into Amycus's classroom of sixth-years.

"There you are," said Amycus. "Took you long enough."

"Put a cork in it, Amycus," said the second Carrow grouchily. "The brat was giving me cheek."

Andrew looked and saw with a pang that the first-year girl accompanying her had a sharp gash on her cheek. She was tearful, petrified. The faces of the rest of his classmates displayed more or less his own feelings: sadness, anger, revulsion. This was an all-too-familiar occurrence at Hogwarts these days—they knew what was coming.

"So, kiddies," said Alecto, giving them a toothy smile, "I gotcha a naughty little first-year here who's earned herself a detention. Who'd like to demonstrate what we do with students who misbehave?"

Everyone averted their eyes and sat stock-still and quiet. They were all hoping not to be chosen to this heinous deed—but someone always was.

"Don't you worry," said Amycus. "I think we can get in five or six today. Who's to be first? No volunteers? Well, then."

He rapped the desk of a curly-haired boy in front of Andrew. "You look eager to set an example," he said. "Up!"

The boy stood on shaking legs. Andrew saw a tear slide down his cheek. He felt as though his insides were being squeezed and twisted by cruel, ruthless hands.

"Wand out," ordered Amycus.

The boy stood there, staring at the first-year he was being told to torture.

"I said _wand out_!" Amycus barked.

The curly-haired boy reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. It quivered as he held it up.

"I've taught you how to do it," said Amycus. "Say the words."

The boy stood there, trembling all over with fear and anguish. The first-year girl was crying openly now.

"DO IT!" yelled Amycus. When the boy still said nothing, he whipped out his own wand in frustration. "_Sectumsempra!_"

There was a flash of pink light, and the curly-haired boy's face jerked like he'd been slapped. Andrew saw blood running freshly down the poor fellow's cheek.

"You will obey me _this instant_," said the Carrow menacingly, the tip of his wand on the boy's head, "or _I_ will make an example out of _you_."

The curly-haired boy was clearly in torment, but he had no other choice. "I'm sorry," he whispered tearfully to the first-year girl. His mouth opened to form the word "_Crucio_..."

Andrew couldn't stand it any longer. He whipped his wand out of his robes and screamed "_Stupefy!_" pointing it at Amycus. Then he turned to Alecto: "_Stupefy!_"

Amycus was caught by surprise, but Alecto saw her brother crumple and blocked the second Stunning Spell, which rebounded straight at Andrew. He dived out of the way, landing on his stomach and accidentally letting go of his wand. Wheezing, he watched in horror as it rolled over the wooden floor, away from him. Alecto shrieked "_Incarcer_—"

"_Protego!_"

A tangle of thick cords boomeranged around the room, smacking into the wall behind Alecto. Andrew looked up to see Mason standing between him and the Carrows, his Shield Charm vanishing before his upheld wand. He turned, grabbed Andrew by the collar, and hoisted him to his feet. "Get up, idiot," he said roughly. "Get your wand!"

The students were screaming and running out of the classroom into the corridor beyond. The curly-haired boy took the whimpering first-year's hand and they fled. In the chaos, Andrew lunged to grab his wand—but Alecto cried "_Accio!_" and it soared through his fingers. The Death Eater caught it and pointed it at the door just as the last student barreled through. It swung shut, its lock clicking.

Mason cast another Shield Charm in front of Andrew and prepared to duel her.

Alecto had two wands now, and she fired off two curses in quick succession. In the nick of time, Mason blocked each one. Alecto glared at him. "_Incarcerous!_"

A second coil of ropes burst from one of the wand-tips, and Mason vaporized it with a blast from his own wand. "_Petrificus Totalus!_" he shouted, turning it on Alecto.

The Death Eater dodged his jinx and hurled a nonverbal one back at him, which he promptly deflected. Their duel intensified; jets of light were shooting back and forth at dizzying speed. And Andrew, wandless and therefore powerless, could do nothing but watch dumbly.

Alecto pointed one wand at her brother's desk and the other at Mason. "_Oppugno!_" she shrieked.

The desk and the papers on it sprang to life and threw themselves at Mason. "_Reducto!_" he cried.

The desk exploded into a hundred pieces. The two duellists cast Shield Charms to protect themselves from the showering splinters and fragments of wood; Andrew, who had no wand, ducked for cover. Meanwhile Amycus's papers were attacking like a swarm of wasps, or Cornish pixies. Mason slashed his wand through the air at the lot of them and shouted "_Converterente_!"

Instantly the papers redirected their attention to Alecto and flew angrily across the room—but the Carrow yelled "_Incendio charta!_" and they fell to the ground in flames. She fixed him with a wild-eyed, furious stare.

"_Stupefy!_" she screamed. "_Expelliarmus! Sectumsempra! Tarantallegra! Incarcerous! Petrificus Totalus!_"

Andrew's vision flashed with multicolored light. He saw Mason roll under a desk and emerge unharmed once the hailstorm of hexes had passed. Alecto let out a noise like a raging animal. She seemed unwilling to kill him; killing must have been off-limits to the Death Eaters at Hogwarts. Mason stood up and raised his wand to keep fighting.

Alecto pointed both wands at him.

"_Crucio._"

There was no jet of light, nothing to dodge. Andrew looked on helplessly as his friend's legs gave way. Mason opened his mouth and made the most horrific sound Andrew had ever heard, writhing in pure agony on the floor. Alecto stared at the boy as she tortured him, with wide, mad eyes. Andrew's screams mingled with Mason's as he stood there, unable to do anything with his own wand in Alecto Carrow's hand.

The door to the classroom burst inward and a new voice shouted "_Expelliarmus!_" Both wands flew out of Alecto's hands and tumbled through the air, bouncing off a desk before landing with a clatter in the middle of the room. A girl Andrew didn't recognize had forced her way in, and she now sprinted for the wands, snatched them up and tossed one to Andrew, pointing the other one and her own at the now wandless Carrow. Andrew did the same.

Seeing three wands aimed at her, Alecto raised her hands slowly into the air. "You done it now, you little brats," she hissed. "You're history!"

"Who's this?" said the new girl to Andrew, meaning Mason, who was stirring feebly on the ground. "He's not a Slytherin, is he?"

"No, he's a friend. He fought her."

She grinned. "Let's round him up, then, shall we?" She pointed her wand at the semiconscious Mason while Andrew's was trained on Alecto, and caused him to rise into the air as if suspended in water. His wand fell into his robes.

Now Andrew could hear shouts and thunderous footsteps echoing somewhere nearby. "We have to go now!" said the girl. Andrew nodded.

Alecto sneered at them. "Go on, you wretched urchins!" she spat. "You run!"

"_Stupefy_," said Andrew irritably.

Alecto's mouth opened and her eyes closed. She fell over a student's empty desk. The girl levitated Mason carefully through the doorway, and then they began to run.

"Where are we going?" asked Andrew.

"No idea," said the girl. "I don't even know how this got started."

"They were torturing kids. I'd had enough. But how did _you_ get involved?"

She grinned at him. "I heard banging and yelling, so I ran up to the place it was coming from. Any excuse to make those swine pay for what they've done to this place."

Andrew marveled at this girl's boldness. Looking at the crest on her robes, he saw that she was a Gryffindor. She had an intense face topped by sandy bangs that went down slightly above her eyes. The rest of her hair was chest-length and rather thin.

"You realized we're totally doomed," he said to her. "We've nowhere to go!"

"Probably," she said, "but I don't intend to go down without a fight."

They rounded a corner, Mason drifting along above them. They came up to a tapestry that Andrew knew concealed a secret passage that would take them up a few floors. "In here," the girl said, pushing it open.

"Any particular reason?" Andrew asked.

She shrugged. "Not really. Just trying to get away from _here_."

They tore up the hidden stairway—just remembering to jump the trick step near the top—and came out in the sixth-floor corridor. "Right," said the girl, "There's got to be _somewhere_ in this castle for us to hide. We need to—"

They skidded to a halt. Standing in front of them, frozen in surprise, was a teacher they knew vaguely, as well as the headmaster of Hogwarts: Severus Snape.

Without pause or words, the girl yanked Andrew to the side and they ran up a flight of stairs, not looking back, though they could hear shouts and running footsteps behind them. A portrait on the wall was scolding them angrily for causing such a ruckus. They turned random corners and tumbled through doorways, with Mason flying in their wake.

At last, the footsteps behind them became distant and faded away. Andrew and the girl leaned against a wall, panting hard.

"Thank you," Andrew said to her. "What's your name?"

"Emma," the girl replied shortly. "And you?"

"Andrew."

There was a pained, drowsy groan above them. Mason was regaining consciousness.

Emma lowered him down to the stone floor and released her charm. Mason stood up shakily, looking around at the corridor and the unfamiliar girl.

"Very nice of you to interrupt your nap for us, mate," said Emma. "Somebody couldn't take a Stunner, eh?"

"He was Cruciated," said Andrew.

The smirk disappeared from her face. "Oh," she said, sobered. "I'm...sorry. I didn't—"

"It's okay," said Mason. He groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"Are you alright, Mason?" asked Andrew anxiously. "That was a nasty curse."

He nodded. "It hurt," he said. "But I'm fit."

"Listen, I'm sorry I couldn't... There was nothing I..."

"Where are we?" said Mason stiffly. "And where are the Carrows?"

"We gave them the slip," said Emma.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," said a snide voice behind them.

The three of them whirled around, Mason snatching the wand from his robe. Alecto Carrow was walking up behind them, accompanied by her brother, newly restored, and a group of thugs that often helped to enforce the Carrows' reign.

"We got ourselves a couple of _serious_ rule-breakers here," Alecto sneered as her brother and their henchmen stalked forward. "I think they'll be getting something a bit worse than deten—"

"_Depulso!_" shouted Emma. The chandelier high above the Carrows came crashing down on them, ripping a cloud of dust and debris from the ceiling. Andrew, Mason and Emma ran in the opposite direction.

"Stop them!" Alecto coughed.

"Are you crazy, girl?" said Mason as they fled. "We're in enough trouble as it is."

"We're not going to get out of trouble," Emma retorted. "The only thing to do now is fight back!"

They ran into a corridor with a tapestry of dancing trolls on one wall. Sprinting down the corridor, they suddenly skidded to a halt at the sound of running footsteps in front of them. People were coming from both behind and in front now.

"They cut us off!" said Emma.

"Oh no," said Andrew. "We're done for."

The three of them held their wands at the ready, back to back, prepared to make a last stand—but to Andrew's astonishment, the wall across from the tapestry opened up.

A new person seized them and pulled them inside a room that hadn't been there a second ago. "Get the door!" the person shouted to someone else; the voice was male. Andrew heard a heavy door shut.

The sounds outside were completely extinguished, as if they were no longer connected to the corridor. They were on a stairway that led into a spacious room filled with various hangings. Further into the room, a number of students were lounging in hammocks or walking around. "Who are you?" demanded Emma. "Where are we?"

"The safest place in Hogwarts," said one of the boys who'd rescued them. "I'm Neville. Welcome to Dumbledore's Army."

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AN: **Eh... For some reason I'm not crazy about the writing in this chapter. Oh, well. Tell me what you think.**


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